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Steve Jobs [2015] ★★★½

Here’s a poke to apple users and non users: “Steve Jobs” isn’t some yawny visual aid on how Jobs came to be Jobs (you can watch the 2013 film starring Ashton Kutcher for that). Instead, it’s a beast of a movie with a full tank of creative gas that keeps it going from start to finish. Sure, it gives you a few facts about how Jobs (a never-better Michael Fassbender) made billions by helping technology win the battle against human contact. But in Dany Boyle’s world, the focus is on the relationship between Jobs and the people who were “close” to him: Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), his loyal marketing director Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), the man who fired him from apple and Chrisann Brennan, the mother of his purported child. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has built his terrific screenplay around three turning points in Jobs’ career, so much of the story takes place backstage, moments before he’s about to unveil something new and revolutionary. Now it’s up to Boyle to direct with thrilling cinematic energy. How? By effectively giving each character his own chance to shine. You’ll have to see the movie to know what I mean. It won’t be easy. Sorkin and Boyle come down hard on some of these characters (mainly Jobs), without withholding on complexity and sympathy. Fassbender delivers a tour de force performance, brilliantly delivering Sorkin’s no holds barred dialogue and revealing how alienation and selfishness actually fueled Jobs’ ambition. It’s a role to die for, and Fassbender just crushes it. Will the movie appeal to an audience looking for a straightforward retelling of Jobs’ life? Probably not. But if you fell in love with Sorkin and his damn near perfect “Social Network” screenplay back in 2010, you’ll definitely love “Steve Jobs”. For me, it’s easily one of the year’s finest films.